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I think it's inflation. And I don't just mean Covid era inflation. Inflation has been an on-again, off-again problem since the collapse of Bretton Woods. It's

I think it's inflation. And I don't just mean Covid era inflation. Inflation has been an on-again, off-again problem since the collapse of Bretton Woods. It's because of inflation that slowly and subtly, everything gets shittier all the time. It encourages businesses to cut corners, shave costs, and find cheap labor overseas. It encourages you to not give a fuck about your job because you haven't had a raise in 5 years and the price of gas just keeps on climbing. Inflation destroys everyone's belief in the future. Why work hard when everything is always getting a little bit worse anyway? We've staved off a lot of the worst material effects with tech and productivity increases, but half the time the benefits from those just go to shareholders (indeed, even if all you did was hold the S&P 500 in recent decades, your portfolio is one of the bright spots in all this). But I think the spiritual effects can't be staved off once you internalize the idea that it'll continually cost you more to keep on getting the same results. The bar of soap you buy will be a little thinner, there'll be a little less meat in your burger. You're always fighting the current. There's never a rest. If you feel this way then why would you care about what you're doing? Historically I don't think there are a lot of societies that find an easy solution to this, the solutions usually involve defaults and wars. Maybe this is part of why the crypto cult is so rabid, Bitcoin has deflationary properties, it's the opposite of the inflation trend.

ambicapter 1y ago
I’m doubtful because things always got a little worse all the time even before money existed. It’s the natural state of nature; erosion. Cleaning up after yourself and maintaining your space is a virtue for that very reason. Seems like that virtue is, itself, is in a state of disrepair (which implies an obvious course of action).
- _DeadFred_ 1y ago
  It really didn't always get worse for a while (at least in the US). McDonalds went from just a burger/rare treat to affordable, to so affordable we had to pass laws to limit how much food they gave out. Homes grew in size, stopped having shared bedrooms/bathrooms. Everyone started having dishwashers/microwaves in their kitchens. Clothes purchases moved from planned to spur of the moment. 27 inch TVs stopped being the norm. (I know this one is cliche, we'd rather decent lives than fancier circuses to distract, but at the time it was a 'wow the future is here' moment, big TVs only existed in rich friends homes, and they were HORRIBLE because they upscaled content designed for 27 inch TVs). Exercise clubs went from only for the rich tennis clubs to affordable gyms. Kids got their OWN computers. Meanwhile, quality was improving everywhere. Shoes, oh my god did shoes get better. Clothing quality got better to the point people in the 80s routinely just started wearing silk (SILK!!! can you believe it?) shirts. Sheet thread counts actually became a thing, holy moley the luxury. Computers went from Commodore 64s to modern wonders. Foods people ate at home/out got fancier, with all kinds of new discoveries. My entire life up until 2008, almost everything around was getting better/cheaper. Yesterday at the store I wanted ice cream. I walked the aisle. Half the brands can no longer call themselves 'ice cream' legally. None of it felt like food to me. There is boutiques super expensive 'ice cream', but there used to be buckets of family friends priced 'ice cream' not whatever slop they sell now for the masses. Every single 'old school' brand I'm familiar with was a hollowed out corpse living off the name but selling trash that I don't consider fit (and remember, this is the junk food, already not really fit, segment).
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
transcriptase 1y ago
Exactly. And all the reasons why economists say inflation is necessary and a good thing seem to make assumptions that aren’t true if taken to their logical conclusion (e.g. infinite growth) and hand wave away negative consequences in order to maintain what amounts to psychologically manipulating people into not saving their money. Index all wages to inflation and we’ll see how much those holding all the assets feel about it.
- greenavocado 1y ago
  I agree with you. The Fed prints trillions, mortgage rates plunge, and suddenly BlackRock's buying up entire neighborhoods with cheap debt while renters get priced out. Inflation is "healthy" if you're the one holding the deeds. But tell that to the family paying 40% of their paycheck just to keep a roof over their heads while wages crawl. Or look at food prices. The USDA says inflation's "moderate," but try explaining that to the diner owner who's paying double for eggs and bacon while his customers stiff on tips on tips because their paychecks buy less. Meanwhile, Tyson Foods posts record profits, not because they're more efficient, but because they've got pricing power and a Fed that's terrified of "deflationary shocks" (corporate margins shrinking). And don't even get me started on healthcare. Hospitals jack up bills 8% a year, insurers shrug and pass it on, and the economists call it "normal." But when a nurse asks for a raise to keep up? Suddenly it's "wage-price spiral" panic. Funny how inflation's a "tool" when it's squeezing workers, but a "crisis" when it threatens profits. The game's rigged. Inflation's just the cover story. They'll print to save banks, but let Main Street eat the inflation tax. They'll cheer "record GDP" while your real paycheck buys less. And if you dare demand wages indexed to inflation? You're "unrealistic", but God forbid the bond market misses its 2% target. So yeah, inflation's not the problem. The problem is who gets the upside (asset owners) and who gets the shaft (everyone else). And until that changes, all this talk about "necessary inflation" is just a con.
  - InvisibleUp 1y ago
    It’s Blackstone that’s investing in single-family homes, not BlackRock. They also only own 0.06% of US single-family housing stock. Easy mistake to make. Also, there was absolutely inflation before Bretton Woods, and significantly worse inflation at that. See, for example, the hyperinflation during Weimar Germany which led to WWII. Or the nearly 10% deflation in the US during the Great Depression, which just exacerbated the effects by severely discouraging investment that would have helped kickstart the economy again. Post-Bretton Woods, major currencies are generally substantially more stable and predictable.
greenavocado 1y ago
The problem isn't just laziness or corporate greed, though those play a role. It's the result of a financial system that has spent years prioritizing short-term profits over lasting value. When success is measured by clicks, quarterly earnings, and engagement metrics rather than quality or truth, the natural outcome is a flood of cheap, disposable content. The AI-generated newspaper supplement isn't an exception, it's exactly what the system was designed to produce. Think about the ripple effects: as money flows toward fast, scalable content instead of deep, meaningful work, the people who actually care, journalists, editors, even readers, are left with fewer resources and less reason to invest effort. Local news shrivels, media gets bought up by profit-driven investors, and algorithms push whatever keeps people scrolling. When the financial incentives don't support real journalism, why would anyone bother? The deeper damage is harder to see. A society fed on algorithmically generated mediocrity starts to lose its ability to recognize, or even expect, better. It's not that people suddenly stopped caring; it's that the system has made caring unrewarding. Underpaid workers cut corners, audiences grow numb to low standards, and the cycle keeps spinning. The "Who Cares Era" isn't about moral failure, it's what happens when the economy no longer values quality. The irony is this same system depends on trust to function. But when readers doubt what they read, workers take no pride in their jobs, and institutions lose credibility, the foundation starts to crack.
- mycall 1y ago
  In a nutshell, money is the root of our evil. I bet there are some 19th century books about this.
  - paulddraper 1y ago
    Maybe even some 1st century ones…
  - sph 1y ago
    It’s easy to blame money, for it’s the most visible and measurable metric in a technologically driven culture. But other scholars have pointed to technology itself as being the issue, the relentless chase of data-driven efficiency, not money, which is just a secondary effect downstream. We went from being a tool-making species, to using tools to organize every aspect of our lives. I recommend Neil Postman’s Technopoly and, of course, good old Uncle Ted.
phendrenad2 1y ago
And one of the cut corners is not letting bad employees go, because hiring costs money and they might be struggling just to stay in business.
BlueTemplar 1y ago
Inflation is mostly a symptom though. Of natural resources getting scarcer (harder to extract). As you can imagine the price of gasoline is quite tied with the worldwide market price of oil. And overall we have in the West (and in the US in particular) been living way "above our means" for more than half a century. And this 'debt' is starting to come due. It will get a lot worse too, for longer, before it starts getting better again.

ambicapter 1y ago

I’m doubtful because things always got a little worse all the time even before money existed. It’s the natural state of nature; erosion. Cleaning up after yourself and maintaining your space is a virtue for that very reason. Seems like that virtue is, itself, is in a state of disrepair (which implies an obvious course of action).

_DeadFred_ 1y ago
It really didn't always get worse for a while (at least in the US). McDonalds went from just a burger/rare treat to affordable, to so affordable we had to pass laws to limit how much food they gave out. Homes grew in size, stopped having shared bedrooms/bathrooms. Everyone started having dishwashers/microwaves in their kitchens. Clothes purchases moved from planned to spur of the moment. 27 inch TVs stopped being the norm. (I know this one is cliche, we'd rather decent lives than fancier circuses to distract, but at the time it was a 'wow the future is here' moment, big TVs only existed in rich friends homes, and they were HORRIBLE because they upscaled content designed for 27 inch TVs). Exercise clubs went from only for the rich tennis clubs to affordable gyms. Kids got their OWN computers. Meanwhile, quality was improving everywhere. Shoes, oh my god did shoes get better. Clothing quality got better to the point people in the 80s routinely just started wearing silk (SILK!!! can you believe it?) shirts. Sheet thread counts actually became a thing, holy moley the luxury. Computers went from Commodore 64s to modern wonders. Foods people ate at home/out got fancier, with all kinds of new discoveries. My entire life up until 2008, almost everything around was getting better/cheaper. Yesterday at the store I wanted ice cream. I walked the aisle. Half the brands can no longer call themselves 'ice cream' legally. None of it felt like food to me. There is boutiques super expensive 'ice cream', but there used to be buckets of family friends priced 'ice cream' not whatever slop they sell now for the masses. Every single 'old school' brand I'm familiar with was a hollowed out corpse living off the name but selling trash that I don't consider fit (and remember, this is the junk food, already not really fit, segment).

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

transcriptase 1y ago

Exactly. And all the reasons why economists say inflation is necessary and a good thing seem to make assumptions that aren’t true if taken to their logical conclusion (e.g. infinite growth) and hand wave away negative consequences in order to maintain what amounts to psychologically manipulating people into not saving their money. Index all wages to inflation and we’ll see how much those holding all the assets feel about it.

greenavocado 1y ago
I agree with you. The Fed prints trillions, mortgage rates plunge, and suddenly BlackRock's buying up entire neighborhoods with cheap debt while renters get priced out. Inflation is "healthy" if you're the one holding the deeds. But tell that to the family paying 40% of their paycheck just to keep a roof over their heads while wages crawl. Or look at food prices. The USDA says inflation's "moderate," but try explaining that to the diner owner who's paying double for eggs and bacon while his customers stiff on tips on tips because their paychecks buy less. Meanwhile, Tyson Foods posts record profits, not because they're more efficient, but because they've got pricing power and a Fed that's terrified of "deflationary shocks" (corporate margins shrinking). And don't even get me started on healthcare. Hospitals jack up bills 8% a year, insurers shrug and pass it on, and the economists call it "normal." But when a nurse asks for a raise to keep up? Suddenly it's "wage-price spiral" panic. Funny how inflation's a "tool" when it's squeezing workers, but a "crisis" when it threatens profits. The game's rigged. Inflation's just the cover story. They'll print to save banks, but let Main Street eat the inflation tax. They'll cheer "record GDP" while your real paycheck buys less. And if you dare demand wages indexed to inflation? You're "unrealistic", but God forbid the bond market misses its 2% target. So yeah, inflation's not the problem. The problem is who gets the upside (asset owners) and who gets the shaft (everyone else). And until that changes, all this talk about "necessary inflation" is just a con.
- InvisibleUp 1y ago
  It’s Blackstone that’s investing in single-family homes, not BlackRock. They also only own 0.06% of US single-family housing stock. Easy mistake to make. Also, there was absolutely inflation before Bretton Woods, and significantly worse inflation at that. See, for example, the hyperinflation during Weimar Germany which led to WWII. Or the nearly 10% deflation in the US during the Great Depression, which just exacerbated the effects by severely discouraging investment that would have helped kickstart the economy again. Post-Bretton Woods, major currencies are generally substantially more stable and predictable.

greenavocado 1y ago

The problem isn't just laziness or corporate greed, though those play a role. It's the result of a financial system that has spent years prioritizing short-term profits over lasting value. When success is measured by clicks, quarterly earnings, and engagement metrics rather than quality or truth, the natural outcome is a flood of cheap, disposable content. The AI-generated newspaper supplement isn't an exception, it's exactly what the system was designed to produce. Think about the ripple effects: as money flows toward fast, scalable content instead of deep, meaningful work, the people who actually care, journalists, editors, even readers, are left with fewer resources and less reason to invest effort. Local news shrivels, media gets bought up by profit-driven investors, and algorithms push whatever keeps people scrolling. When the financial incentives don't support real journalism, why would anyone bother? The deeper damage is harder to see. A society fed on algorithmically generated mediocrity starts to lose its ability to recognize, or even expect, better. It's not that people suddenly stopped caring; it's that the system has made caring unrewarding. Underpaid workers cut corners, audiences grow numb to low standards, and the cycle keeps spinning. The "Who Cares Era" isn't about moral failure, it's what happens when the economy no longer values quality. The irony is this same system depends on trust to function. But when readers doubt what they read, workers take no pride in their jobs, and institutions lose credibility, the foundation starts to crack.

mycall 1y ago
In a nutshell, money is the root of our evil. I bet there are some 19th century books about this.
- paulddraper 1y ago
  Maybe even some 1st century ones…
- sph 1y ago
  It’s easy to blame money, for it’s the most visible and measurable metric in a technologically driven culture. But other scholars have pointed to technology itself as being the issue, the relentless chase of data-driven efficiency, not money, which is just a secondary effect downstream. We went from being a tool-making species, to using tools to organize every aspect of our lives. I recommend Neil Postman’s Technopoly and, of course, good old Uncle Ted.

phendrenad2 1y ago

And one of the cut corners is not letting bad employees go, because hiring costs money and they might be struggling just to stay in business.

BlueTemplar 1y ago

Inflation is mostly a symptom though. Of natural resources getting scarcer (harder to extract). As you can imagine the price of gasoline is quite tied with the worldwide market price of oil. And overall we have in the West (and in the US in particular) been living way "above our means" for more than half a century. And this 'debt' is starting to come due. It will get a lot worse too, for longer, before it starts getting better again.